They Lost Crores. Then Came the Silence: What Happens After Digital Arrest?

For digital arrest victims, the bigger trauma has become what follows dialing 1930.

Victims of digital arrest are threatened with arrest or harm, and subjected to hours of psychological pressure until they comply to transfer money to fraudulent accounts.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

The call came to Sushma* before she'd had her morning coffee. It was an unknown number she at first had thought to ignore but answered anyway.

The call was from a "representative" from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), claiming her SIM card had been used for illegal transactions. The caller asked if she had shared her Aadhaar number recently—she had, of course; isn’t it required for almost everything these days?

They concluded it had been misused—and said they could issue a clarification certificate if she could verify her innocence.

As Sushma struggled to process this, another person, posing as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer, joined the call. This wasn’t just about a SIM card, they claimed; she was allegedly entangled in a high-profile money laundering case linked to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal—who’s himself accused of money laundering—and human-trafficking operations.

They started yelling at her, and told her they were coming to her house to arrest her. They sent her pictures of arrest warrants, too, with the CBI logo stamped on them.

Sushma, who belongs to an acclaimed family—one of her parents having received a Padma Shri—pleaded with them.

“My biggest fear was that our family’s reputation and my daughter’s career would be ruined—and they played on that fear. They told me that the reputation will go to the dogs if they come to arrest me.”

Sushma, a digital arrest victim

They convinced her that they could "make the problem go away by sanitising her money." But she must not tell anyone.

This went on for two months as the scamsters led her into a web of psychological manipulation—and scammed her transaction after transaction of Rs 6 crore.

For nearly two months, Sushma remained on video and phone calls continuously with the scamsters, hiding the truth from her family, friends, even the investors of her company. The scamsters demanded she repeatedly confirmed her presence on the call by saying, “I am here”, every three seconds.

“I genuinely believed them. I thought they were trying to help me,” she told The Quint.

“It’s been four months since—and I've only received Rs 10 lakh back. Around Rs 20 lakh is frozen in my bank account, but I can't access it. People tell me to just move on and accept what has happened. But how can I survive with all my life savings taken away?”

From nearly Rs 6 crore, Sushma is now left with Rs 10 lakh.

A Growing Crisis

The ‘digital arrest’ scam is a highly sophisticated and psychologically manipulative cyber fraud. According to a response in the Rajya Sabha last month by Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Minister of State for Home Affairs, cases of digital arrest scams and related cyber crimes in India have almost tripled between 2022 and 2024. In 2024 alone, there were 1,23,672 such cases recorded, taking the total defrauded amount to Rs 1,935.51 crore.

The trend has continued into 2025, with 17,718 cases reported in just the first two months, amounting to a staggering Rs 210.21 crore in losses.

Victims are contacted by scammers impersonating officials from law enforcement agencies like the CBI, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), or telecom authorities, tricking victims into believing they are under investigation for serious financial crimes like money laundering, hawala transactions, or human trafficking.

Though these scams cut across demographics, some cases have resulted in losses of several crores, especially among high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). It is suspected that these individuals are chosen after thorough research, carefully selecting victims for their financial status, and fear of legal or reputational consequences.

Months after being scammed, over 20 victims—most of them respected professionals such as retired engineers, doctors, business owners, and former military officers—have found solace in a WhatsApp support group, where they share their experiences, understand the legal complexities, and seek support from one another.

Losses in the group range from Rs 21 lakh to Rs 6 crore.

The Quint spoke to six individuals who collectively lost over Rs 15 crore, to understand why recovering their money remains an uphill battle, the loopholes in our systems, and how the WhatsApp community has become a strong pillar of support.

What Happens After You Dial 1930?

“In most cases, the bigger trauma is what happens after you call 1930 (cybercrime helpline). It is not a helpline — it’s part two of the scandal,” said Nikita, a senior marketing consultant. “That is when you truly realise how traumatic the system is. You are just constantly banging on one door after another.”

Nikita's five-day-long digital arrest ended with her liquidating her bank savings and transferring Rs 6 crore to the scamsters. They made her believe that if she didn't comply, her child was going to be kidnapped. They convinced her they were protecting her.

“It hits you like a storm. The people on the other line are talking, screaming, threatening, and cajoling all at once. There’s not even a moment to think. I convinced myself into believing it was real. Why did I not just shut my laptop? Why did I not just walk out? The fact that you can take over someone’s brains is the latest form of terrorism.”

Nikita, a senior marketing consultant

The first course of action for victims after realising they’ve been scammed is calling 1930, the cybercrime helpline, or reporting the fraud through the cybercrime portal. However, loopholes in the system make it difficult to recover their money.

The scammers swiftly transfer the funds from the victim’s account to multiple accounts across various banks and states—or even into cryptocurrency—making tracking nearly impossible.

The primary accounts that victims are made to transfer money to are often mule accounts.

“One of the main problems is that the banking system is very vulnerable. How were there no red flags raised when money was being transferred into an account that was inactive for three years?” asked Nikita. “Rs 6 crore came into account from all my savings and were immediately flushed out with 90 percent going to one bank branch. Why are banks not liable for this?”

In many cases, a single bank account is used to scam multiple victims. If some money remains in that account, the first victim to obtain a court order gets a chance at recovery, while others are left waiting indefinitely. Another challenge is jurisdiction—Nikita’s money, for instance, was traced to nine different accounts in one single bank branch in Kerala, yet no progress has been made.

The study in her Gurugram home contains a folder, but it’s not just any folder. It has hundreds of documents, containing details of the scam she, and others, were subjected to. Letters to and from everyone, from bank officials to cybercrime officials to the PMOs; there isn't a person she has not reached out to. There are even mini-studies about digital scams that she wrote based on psychologists she spoke to.

Still, no resolution.

“There is zero willingness of the authorities to recognise the amount of trauma you have suffered. The criminals are actually relying on how courts, banks, and the police work in this country; it goes in their favour. You keep waiting for a court order after multiple court dates. Then when it comes, the bank says they require a compliance order as well. By the time all this happens, the money is gone from the account. Or it is just sitting frozen in the bank.”

Nikita

There is a constant feeling of being judged – not just by friends who she has now lost, but also authorities.

“They will look at you and say, oh, you had this much money in your account? They will make you feel bad about the fact that you have been working since you were an adult and have been able to earn what you have. As a victim, you feel such a deep sense of shame and guilt.”

Jane, a 62-year-old from Delhi NCR who lost Rs 84 lakh in July 2024, said that despite police reassurances, no action has been taken since August 2024. “If you act very fast and get the police to act very fast as well, maybe you will get 10 percent. To get it from the court, the steps are so many that by the time you get even 5 percent you are more broken than you were earlier.”

She said that the initial shock of what you have gone through makes it difficult to file a complaint.

“I spent four to five hours on that cyber crime portal; they kept rejecting my complaint. I was completely shattered at the time and my mind was not working. Then, after the initial few days, the usual happens. SHOs and IOs get transferred or apathetic to your cause, say they are working on your case but don't get back for months. I don’t even like to talk about this anymore because of how people look at me when I do. I was not stupid, just vulnerable.”

Jane, a 62-year-old from Delhi NCR

Gautam Mengle, assistant vice-president and security awareness strategist at Cyberfrat, an organisation that conducts cyber security awareness and training, told The Quint that digital arrests had evolved over the last couple of years with the criminals getting “bolder and more organised.”

“If it is not fair to expect banks to be alert to such crimes, who else can we expect it from?” he asked.

“As a country we are equipped to handle the menace, but enforcement will take time. Since the masterminds of these scams are rarely arrested, we don’t have too much insight into the psychology, but it is likely that social engineering has been used—to tailor your cybercrime in a very believable manner with your target.”

A Safe Space

In the seven months since he was scammed of Rs 1.6 crore, retired army officer Manoj has sought help from every avenue: banks, PMO, courts, the RBI, and cybercrime cells. Now, he has “given up.”

“For a few months, we were going everyday to the police station. Was there a lead? Was anyone caught yet? Would any of the money be coming back to me? Then there came a stage when the assistant commissioner refused to meet me and that’s when I realised that the police were out of it.”

His funds were scattered across seven states. Police told him to go to the banks. Banks asked for verification orders. The RBI asked him to wait. The PMO said they couldn't help. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre at the Home Ministry said the same.

“Loss of money is one aspect to the pain, but the process of going to each and every authorities, not knowing who can help me is another. This is far more painful than losing the money. Where all can I keep going? I know the end result by now."

Manoj

The small glimmer of hope for Manoj has been the WhatsApp group started by Nikita.

“It’s an eye-opener. It made all of us affected by such scams know that we are not alone. We don’t have to just live on hope—because there is very little left. Speaking to each other has helped understand the situation better.”

His wife, Vandana, agreed. “It has been a support system. When you see others going through it, you know you are not alone. We also saw that there were some young people who had been victims. It gives us hope that those young people are going to take up this issue head-on and fight.”

Vandana was out of town when her husband received the calls. Even when she video-called him—when he was in between calls with the scamsters, transferring money—nothing seemed amiss. He had been told he could not tell anyone, as it was a matter of national security.

When Manoj finally called her two days later, explaining that they had been ‘saved’ from a case because he had handed over all their money, she told him the truth—he had been scammed.

“When this kind of a scam happens, it is not just the person who gets affected. The whole family suffers. My kids have seen how hard their father works and feel so bad to see him like this. My daughter still cannot talk about this incident. My son calls it financial terrorism. And my husband, he has blanked out on what actually happened those two days.”

Systemic Failures

Cyber lawyer Prashant Mali called cybercrimes “the pandemic of this century.”

“Government needs to bring in a policy of cyber trauma — losing money is one thing but the trauma of realising you have been cheated is another,” he told The Quint. “The only chance you have of getting your money back is if the amount is immediately frozen. But banks also are in a tough spot and are getting fatigued. The money is limited and they don’t know who to give it to as court orders come from multiple states and victims for the same account many times.”

Due to this, he said that the justice delivery mechanisms in cybercrimes had failed supremely. “The government has no SOP on how to help digital arrest victims. The RBI and the MHA should come up with a procedure and include victim trauma neutralisation as well.”

Fifty-nine-year-old Chitra, who was scammed of Rs 21 lakh, said that the poor coordination between the police and the banks was a big issue.

“There is no coordination between them, and sometimes there is no coordination between different branches of the same bank as well, which was HDFC in my case. I tried to fight for my money for a month but now I have understood the reality. Unless you have support from the government, the RBI, or the PMO directly, it is highly impossible to get the money back.”

Chitra

But the Union Home Ministry has established a bureau for exactly that. To combat cybercrimes, they had established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) back in 2018. This centre was designed to enable coordinated action among law enforcement agencies across states and departments.

In March 2025, the I4C issued a fresh advisory on digital arrest scams, urging the public to report suspicious calls through the national cybercrime portal and refrain from sharing personal or financial information with unknown callers. However, the victims The Quint spoke to said they were either not informed about such a bureau or did not receive any help from them.

In October 2024, the MHA formed a high-level committee to investigate digital arrest scam cases and cyber fraud. The Quint has filed an RTI with the department to know the members of the committee and the actions taken or recommended by them.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), too, issued a public advisory in December 2024 about the digital arrest scam, warning citizens about “unexpected contact from authorities” and asking them to “stay vigilant for scammers requesting video calls or attempting to appear official by using police uniforms or background noise.”

“The RBI cannot take direct legal action in these cases because they involve criminal activity — that's the domain of law enforcement,” Alpana Killawala, former head of communication at the RBI, told The Quint. “However, the RBI can frame new guidelines to introduce more checks for unusual or high-value transfers. That said, it’s important not to burden customers with excessive security steps.”

She suggested that banks could offer optional alert systems that notify customers when certain transaction thresholds are crossed.

“What’s really missing in awareness campaigns is a clear, direct message: just hang up. There is no such thing as a digital arrest. Do not engage,” she said. Asked about why the Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures were not being full proof in ensuring safety, she said, “Earlier, banks would follow up KYC submissions with address verifications or physical visits. With the current volume of bank accounts, that kind of scrutiny is nearly impossible now.”

Professor Jayanth Varma, a member of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee, said that every order by government agencies should be uploaded on a single centralised government website, from which the order can be downloaded and verified after an Aadhaar-based login.

"We need to ensure a high degree of transparency and verifiability for authentic coercive actions by genuine government agencies. Every such order, whether for arrest or for attachment of bank accounts or for disconnection of mobile connections, should be digitally signed in a way that allows its authenticity to be easily verified using an app like DigiLocker."

Prof Jayanth Varma

He said that if genuine orders are easy to fake, then these frauds will keep happening in different forms.

"There are dozens of government agencies that have coercive power, but it is important that all their orders should follow a common standardised process for authenticity verification using a single site and a single app rather than each agency developing its own ways of handling this issue," he added.

'Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon'

The NCPI launched another campaign to educate citizens about the safe use of digital payment services and preventing scams. But the campaign was structured to put accountability on the victim.

“Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon” (I am not a fool) was its tagline. It featured actor Pankaj Tripathi in different professions—street food vendor, paan seller—and saying that he may be a “paanwala” but he is not a moorkh, and would not fall for such cyber crime scams.

“This campaign is insulting. There is anyway such a deep sense of shame and guilt that you feel as a victim,” said Nikita.

”With such campaigns, that might get worse. In many cases victims don’t even talk. I haven't even told my parents yet. But if every victim would talk, the vulnerabilities would become so apparent we would be able to fix the system better.”

Nikita and Vandana told The Quint about an awareness programme held recently at ICICI Bank where a magician was invited to show how people lose their money. Nikita said the magic show was “unbearable to watch as a digital arrest victim.”

“How can you make a mockery of such a serious issue?” asked Vandana.

“No matter the efforts taken by institutions, nothing will get resolved if victim blaming is there,” said Gautam Mengle. “It will be anti-antagonist. There is a difference between cautioning someone and blaming someone. If you are observing these crimes for years, seeing them get more serious, you can’t simply say don’t do this. Why are people so willing to believe the lies the scamsters say while impersonating officers? Are we addressing underlying issues?”

While it has been more than six months in most of the cases mentioned, none of the victims has recovered more than eight percent of their losses. But together, they have prepared a docket of all their case studies and are seeking time from the PMO. They’re unsure of how much relief they will get, if at all. But they’re sure of one thing—they have nothing left to lose anymore.

The Quint has reached out to the RBI, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, and ICICI and HDFC banks. This story will be updated as and when they respond.

*Names in the story have been changed to protect identities.